Part 8: A Retrospective Overseas Job Description

Brent, you asked me to look back about 20 years and write my job description for when Bruce and I and our four small sons lived overseas for 7 years. He asked if I had a job description—I don’t think anyone did back then for this type of job.

Brent, you should understand that I am not making a legal recommendation that anyone have this job description, and most job descriptions would be much shorter. This is only my job description—what I actually did. I just read it to my husband, and he said, “That sounds like fun; I want to go back.”

Company Mission:

Glorifying God among those who do not know Jesus Christ.

Job title:

Cross-cultural communications—wife

Department:

Oh please.

Purpose:

Build the Kingdom on multiple levels from family to church to broader community in a relatively primitive multicultural setting.

Essential functions of the job:

Teach university English classes;

Teach preschool and elementary school;

Train inexperienced household help;

Run a house in a primitive tropical setting;

Learn a national and tribal language;

Assist in church work;

Show hospitality to people from multiple people groups;

Assist in development work;

Provide nutritional and tasty food for a family, where most of it has to be made from scratch (as in making bread, noodles, and tortillas);

Care for three small children;

Give birth to a baby in a primitive medical setting and provide for adequate newborn medical care;

Sew or cause to be sewn clothes and curtains for the family;

Identify markets and shops to buy or make needed items;

Any other task required to be done from time to time.

Time required:

14-16 hours a day and always on call.

Physical activities:

Ability to work continuously in tropical heat and resist tropical diseases;

Bear a baby without medical complications;

Design and implement adequate exercise in an environment where walking on the street is not practicable;

Drive a large manual Landrover with no power steering (up to 9 months pregnant);

Eat a variety of food without becoming ill.

Place:

The job takes place in a mid-sized but fairly primitive Asian city on the equator and near the ocean. Temperature varies little throughout the year, but is consistently hot and muggy. Rainfall is about 36 inches a year. Tropical diseases, including cholera, typhoid, dengue fever, and tuberculosis, are endemic.

Work environment:

The work environment is not organized; the worker must organize it.

The worker must be able to identify tasks, design an approach, and implement the tasks in a self-directed way. There will be no supervision and no feedback.

Able to diagnose and treat medical conditions with no formal training; must be able to tolerate the sight of blood;

Management skills to run a household and school of small children and workers;

Theological training for church work;

Cross-cultural skills;

Emotional ability to stay calm in crisis; must be able to deal with overwhelming situations with no visible emotional reaction;

Sufficient inner resources to exist with few friendships and little communication back to the U.S. or with colleagues in other parts of the country;

Practical skills in cooking, sewing, and decorating;

Driving skills to drive under dangerous conditions and on inadequate roads.

Accommodations that could reasonably be made:

It is possible that for some physical disabilities, additional household help could be hired. Many disabilities could not be accommodated. Wheelchairs would not work—no sidewalks. You couldn’t learn the language with a hearing disability. The environment would severely exacerbate any emotional disabilities. Any physical weakness would lead to severe illness and possibly death.

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